A Wrexham AFC Blog

Menu

Reynolds’ Selection Tonight Opens Doors For Others

I’m not surprised to see Danny Reynolds enjoy some involvement in the first team at Braintree. In fact, after watching him play in Wrexham’s Youth Cup run earlier this season, I was anticipating it sooner or later. As you can see below, I was impressed with him when I wrote about the cup run earlier this season:

The main scorer in our FA Youth Cup run is the player who has perhaps caught the eye most obviously though. Danny Reynolds looks very useful, with dare I say it an air of a young Luis Suarez about him. Not that I’ve seen him take a bite out of any centre backs, but he has the rare ability to wriggle out of tight areas which should serve him well. He drops deep to link play well, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting into the danger area to finish moves off. The combination of an ability to play in the hole as a second striker and still get into the six yard box to finish his chances is a rare one.

Obviously, we can’t expect too much too soon, but we could do worse than use the rest of the season to give him a taste of first team football. It’s often interesting to see how a new manager brings a new perspective on a squad; often they will gamble with youth prospects, either because they’ve seen something they like or because they feel there’s a deficiency in some area of the first team squad which needs to be plugged. Tim Sherwood throwing Nabil Bentaleb in at the deep end at Tottenham is a prime recent example of this.

In terms of Reynolds’style of play, I doubt if Barr sees Reynolds as bringing something to the party which he hasn’t already got at his disposal though. When it comes to strikers who can drop off and link play with midfield, he has options, Brett Ormerod being the most obvious one. But Reynolds also looks like he can take a chance, and perhaps that’s a quality Barr wants to gamble on.

Either way, Reynolds’ selection is bold and exciting. It’s a pat on the back for the excellent work of Andy Davies and Joey Jones with the youth team, and also offers up the possibility that other talents like Iwan Cartwright, Ross White and Ross Weaver might get some pitch time.

Whether Barr gets the job or not, he clearly sees a chance to help work for the club’s future.